An announcement from one of the world’s biggest companies also serves as a lesson in social media pettiness, and people are eating it up. Amazon and Walmart don’t make great bedfellows.
Amazon head Jeff Bezos publicly published his annual letter to shareholders this week and in it he included a challenge to the company’s competitors to raise their minimum wage to $15 per hour – or better.
“Today I challenge our top retail competitors (you know who you are!) to match our employee benefits and our $15 minimum wage. . .”
Well, Walmart was having none of that, and its Executive VP of Corporate Affairs tweeted this pointed response:
Notice how he cited an article detailing how Amazon will pay $0 in federal taxes for 2018. Burn! As it stands, Walmart’s minimum wage is roughly $11 per hour, while Target will up theirs to $13 this summer with a plan to increase it to $15 by the end of 2020.
Amazon and its main competitors all have their share of employee dissatisfaction in terms of compensation, including Amazon’s reputation for its treatment of warehouse workers.
But the retail industry has high turnover, making it somewhat harder for these companies to attract and keep employees. Additionally, one aspect of business is to keep costs down, including labor, so don’t expect anyone to outdo Amazon’s $15 an hour move anytime soon.
Click below to hear Bezos’ full statement and to see why Walmart and Amazon can’t be friends.
Do you work in retail with a low minimum wage? What do you think of Amazon’s challenge? Your thoughts on Walmart’s response and their track record?